A few weeks ago some friends and I decided to go wander the desert (thus my mildly sacrilegious title). While we didn’t find any manna, we did find some really interesting places. When in the desert, it often pays to take the road less traveled. I’ve been working my tail off and am exhausted, so I’m going to stop talking and show you pictures. Bye.

Hello again. I did want to say this: if Toby’s friends sought fit to erect such an awesome roadside memorial, I feel like he or she was the type of person I would have liked to have known. Rest in Peace, person whom should have been my friend.

First up are some photos of my friend Tim Gill, who’s an amazing musician and leads a few different incredible musical groups, including the Tim Gill All Stars. You should probably go see them live or buy some of their music if you know what’s good for you.

I did some work with my friend Anna Habrat (the Magical Blonde Hair Stylist) for entries in the NAHA competition. While I can’t show you the super rad styles she came up with until after the competition, I thought I’d throw in some interesting outtakes if for no other reason than model Dawnielle has amazing eyes.

I made this mermaid a few months ago with my Pixelstick. There’s supposed to be some dolphins in there, but they’re jerks and aren’t showing up well.

This one hurts my head to look at.

I know this photo doesn’t look like much, but I’m pretty sure it’s the most perfect photo I’ve ever taken. Some day when I die this will be sold for millions of dollars. Get your copy now for a mere $1,000.

And last but not least, a giant hole. See you next year!

If you’re viewing this a a single post and have like 6 more minutes to kill, feel free to check out the rest of my work here.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I headed out to the Flagstaff and Sedona areas of Arizona. Unfortunately, due to an unscheduled, violent meeting between my foot and a wall at my apartment, I made the trip with a painful fracture. Since I was limited, things were a little more boring than normal, but I still got a few photos to share.

The first stop on our trip was to Flintstone’s Bedrock City. As I wrote previously, this place is so bad it’s awesome. An employee told me that it’s been put up for sale, so who knows if it’ll be around much longer. Best get out if you ever want to see it. I shot a lot of pictures, but they’re kinda boring so I’ve included a small selection.

I think this picture of a giant dog on a dinosaur slide is probably the best photo I’ve ever taken.

Me and my busted foot on the same slide. Being metal and relatively steep, it was one of the best slide related experiences I’ve had since I was a child.

We met this guy at Grand Canyon.

My brother, beer in hand, trying to get a closer look. (Not really; we’re both too smart to approach large animals, but we thought it’d be fun to take a picture like this anyhow.)

With the help of a cane (and my brother and cousin helping me through some tough spots), I made a painful hike to the top of Cathedral Rock in Sedona. It was hard, but wow, what a place. I strongly recommend that you make this hike at least once in your life. (Hopefully you’ll have a more interesting sunset than I did.)

I love pictographs and petroglyphs. I really like the solitude of the desert, so whenever I encounter native desert art I get this great feeling of camaraderie with the people who made them. Both of us chose to visit this quiet place centuries apart, but likely for the same reasons of tranquility and beauty.

I *think* this is Bell Rock, as seen from the top of Cathedral Rock.

On our last day we went to a place called “Bearizona” in Williams, AZ, which lets you drive through various animal habitats in your car. While there are a number of cool animals to see, the wolves were by far the best. Here’s one of them trying to steal my cousin’s soul. I think this was an Arctic wolf maybe?

This pictograph site near Laughlin was one of the most prolific I’ve ever visited. Dozens of huge boulders looked just like this one, with scores of images carved on top of each other. Note how high up this rock is: that’s my 6ish-foot-tall brother in the lower right. Also note that I was standing in a horrible thorn bush to get this picture for you. I’m pretty sure that means you owe me like $5 or something.

As my last shot of the post, here’s a picture taken near Desert View Watchtower. Thanks for visiting!

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I’m too tired to come up with a clever title tonight or to write words good. So, pictures look you. Bye.

If you’re viewing this as a single post, point your mouse here and then do a single click to see the rest of my stuff. If you’d rather click two or more times, you can check out my prints gallery over here. Thanks. :)

For the record, I’m not actually dating Naina (she’s waaaaay too hot for me). I am lucky though to count her as a friend and to have photographed her a number of times. A professional model and actress, she’s a delight to shoot. She is immensely creative and always has tons of great ideas.

The concept for this set was lovers at home for the day, playing with the camera in some of their private, happy moments (thus the “dating” title). We shot around my new apartment and got some really great photos. Naina also terrified me by sitting precariously far over the edge of my balcony. Anything for the art I suppose. :)

Most of my pictures never get published. Usually this is because I’m unhappy with the photos. Other times, it’s because the photos are redundant to other shots I like better. All of the items below are unpublished photos from a trip I took to Kiev, Chernobyl, and Paris (also London, but I hate most of those photos). I’ve got loads more images from Europe, so I’m sure I’ll do another one of these in the future.

If a town near Chernobyl “died” as a result of the nuclear accident, it was typically razed and buried to prevent people from visiting it. When this happened, a sign with the town name was erected and a red slash placed on it, denoting that the town was no more.

This is what a destroyed grocery store looks like.

Graffiti by an unknown artist in Pripyat, Chernobyl’s most famous lost town.

I’ve published a photo of this refrigerator before, but since I love the subject so much I decided to post a second image. One of the great mysteries of my life will forever be why this home appliance came to be hanging out on the corner of a Parisian intersection.

Pripyat’s most famous icon is the Ferris wheel in the town’s amusement park, which was scheduled to open just a few days after the meltdown occurred.

To finish up, here are two shots of the Eiffel Tower: one at sunrise and one not long after a stormy sunset.

This past weekend I hosted my family at the beach house (thanks FTS!). Since my family is awesome and full of crazy people, and since the beach is open until midnight there, we decided to take my shiny new direct-from-KickStarter Pixelstick for a spin.

In case you were too lazy to read the website I linked to above, Pixelstick is a modern take on the classic photographic technique of light painting. Basically, you keep your camera’s shutter open for a while and it will capture a light source as though it were floating, electric paint. Pixelstick has 200 LED bulbs in a strip about 6-feet tall, and as it moves it blinks different patterns. These blinking lights and gradients get turned into interesting patterns, like so:

And sometimes the LEDs blink out a row of chalupas, as seen here behind my cousin doing mountain pose (IIRC).

My cousin Lauren has the best stories of anyone in the world. I could listen to them all day. A number of them involve “burrito shops” or “burrito stores,” so I thought burritos would be fitting for her.

Pyramid thug life 4-evah!

Making simple images is trivial, and to be honest, kinda boring after a while. Once we started getting better with the device we worked on more interesting concepts. This one was made by lighting Kayla first with an all-red light and then running around her position with a red ribbon pattern.

This one was a 30-second exposure using a similar technique: for 15 seconds or so I ran around with a red ribbon image, and for the second 15 seconds I turned on a blue image. I’m pretty excited about what I’ll be able to do in the future as I figure this thing out further. Anyone want to play with me?

I’ll wrap up with a very rare image of the Milky Way taken from Orange County. This stretch of coast line has very few houses and is far enough away from Laguna Beach and Dana point such that the sky is just dark enough for a Milky Way shot. Not my best ever, but it was cool to see it here for the first time in my life over OC. In the foreground is whale rock.

On the last day of my trip we were exploring the abandoned “Locust City,” a former air force town off highway 395. We had just exited the former Hall of Justice when my brother and his girlfriend got quiet. After a moment, he said that he thought someone was watching us. From the second floor of the building we had just left we could hear what sounded like faint footsteps stepping carefully and deliberately through broken glass.

Since my last visit in November a number of buildings had been severely burned, which in my experience is often the result of refugee meth heads. It’s possible one or more was looking at us then.

Coincidentally, at the start of the trip I was also worried about meth addicts. My primary purpose for this outing was to photograph the Milky Way, which I had never really been able to do until the last few months. (Mostly because I’m dumb.) With a new car to drive and my newish camera in hand, a small group of us retraced my route up 395 to take pictures of our galactic neighborhood. Our first stop was the Trona Pinnacles, gigantic tufa formations near the dying and remote town of Trona, CA. Standing in the middle of nowhere at 1 in the morning, I was a little concerned about some of Trona’s less desirable residents lurking in the shadows.

As it turns out, the only thing we had to worry about was extremely high winds, which chased us out of the area earlier than we would have liked. The first two shots are from Trona.

By the way, please excuse the fact that the Milky Way looks different in each of my shots. I’m still getting the hang of doing post-processing on it. The yellow glow at the bottom of any photos is light pollution from a city.

On day two, as we headed north we swung by a livestock and cattle graveyard that I had previously visited near Lone Pine. It’s actually more like a dumping ground. Last time I was there I found the body of a recently dead horse (warning: a bit graphic). Here’s what it looked like now:

A rare-ish self-portrait of yours truly in a 90ish-year-old mirror.

This is a shot looking west from pothole rock at Tuolomne Meadows. Even though pothole rock isn’t particularly tall, it’s at something like 8,500 feet and I’m in terrible shape. This was a rough hike.

This is also Tuolomne Meadows, but just a little bit up the road.

The next day we did some river rafting in the Yosemite Valley. This is easily one of the most enjoyable (and breathtaking) things you can do in California. Because the water level was so low it took extra long to get to the end, which meant more time for fun and games. Here, my brother rolls out of the boat in order to hit his head on a submerged rock.

And here he is jumping off a bridge.

I jumped off of it too, but this photo of a brave 12-year-old is more interesting than me.

This is upper Yosemite Falls as seen from the banks of the river. The massive California drought has reduced it to a relative trickle, but it’s still amazing to see in person. Fun Fact: Yosemite Falls is the fifth tallest in the world.

A bird stands guard on a tufa formation at Mono Lake. Although much smaller, these are the same type of structure as those found at Trona.

We went to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest one day. The oldest living non-clonal organisms on earth, these trees are incredible (one is over 5,000 years old!). I know it sounds stupid, but standing next to them feels really special, as though you’re in the presence of a sentient, ancient friend. It feels as though they’re happy to have you there. Like I said, it’s weird…. Anyways, you absolutely must go there sometime in your life. I think we’re going to go back soon do so some star photography.

The older a tree gets, the more gnarled it becomes.

The tops of the trees reminded me of pleading hands, as if they were asking the sky to save them.

We return to Locust City for the next group of photos. I’ve been to enough abandoned places to know that they’re rarely totally abandoned. Drug users and destitute people often use them as temporary ports, waiting out whatever storm currently claws at them. This picture makes me sad: the mattress is relatively new and the sheet was in pretty good shape. Some child was sleeping on this not too long ago. I hope they’re somewhere safer now.

Walking on the second floor of these buildings is an adventure. Lots of holes abound.

This former kitchen is now open to the elements. I’d guess that the roof will collapse within the year.

As I mentioned earlier, I think someone was watching us at one point. This blanket and sign had fallen through a collapsed portion of the ceiling above us. Coincidentally, this was the building in which the person may have been. I wondered if the sentry was a current position, protecting people who made the location their home.

Dark rooms everywhere.

This is another picture that makes me sad. This room had clothing, books, and other belongings in it. Some of the items were setup in such a way that I think someone was living here for a while before it caught fire.

This photo was taken about 250 miles away from Locust City, and is in a much more dangerous location. Fun.

This is my brother in a mask at the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine. Sweet dreams. :)

And here’s my tent, preparing to roast me to death overnight.

Finally, here’s one more picture from Trona, with my brother acting as model.

In the end, we never did figure out whether someone was watching us at the abandoned city. Someday I know I’ll run into one of the ghosts of these forgotten places, but I’m happy that they’ve let me visit without any trouble so far. Maybe next time….

By the way, if you like photography and think you might like to visit some of these places, check out my friend Keith Skelton’s photo workshops. He does a trip to a number of the same locations every so often and is a great teacher.

Anyways, let’s stop with the jibber-jabber and look at my mildly interesting photographs.

First up, here’s a few photos from my wonderful friend Brittany’s wine and cheese party. It was fun. I fell down at one point.

Next up: I dig the moon. Sometimes I stand still and look at it and am amazed that there’s a gigantic ball of rock circling us (like during the blood moon eclipse). Then I go inside and play on my iPad and waste the precious time I have left on earth.

I have the accidental habit of going down to “the cemetery” at Corona Del Mar anytime someone I know passes away. The accidental part of it is that I usually don’t realize I’m doing it until I’ve arrived. My friend Christina was having a rough day and came with me. Apparently, the rocks wanted two visitors.

Here she is smiling.

Possibly the best photo I’ve ever taken of myself:

Finally, here’s four pictures I took near sunset at Mt. Baldy. I missed the actual sunset because I was trying to talk to some German girls inside. (Spoiler alert: I did talk to them. They were nice.)